April 2009 – present:
Associate Director, Future United Nations Development System (FUNDS), Geneva / New York / Toronto.
FUNDS project intends to assess the capacity of the current UN development system agencies to address the evolving major development challenges, and deliver a blueprint for the future outlining the nature and scope of a renewed UN development system. The project links research institutions in New York and Geneva, the two main seats of the UN development system, as well as to centres of excellence in countries of the South.
Job profile and achievements:
- Co-founding the FUNDS Project in 2009 and scaling it up.
- Bringing out briefings, reports and analysis on the role of the United Nations, including on climate change, sustainable development, financing for development, MDGs, south-south cooperation and global public goods.
- Conducting Conducting biennial surveys (2010 and 2012) on the future of the United Nations, and on emerging powers and BRICS.
- Conducting Building network of over 200 eminent experts and partnerships with research institutions.
- Wilton Park Conferences on the Future of the UN Development System in 2010 and 2012.
- Outreach, partnership and network building: global, regional and country-level
- Reports, Blogs and website
July 2007 – April 2009:
Head – Media and Communications, South Centre, Geneva.
South Centre is a Geneva-based intergovernmental organisation of 50 member countries. It provides policy advice, research and negotiations support to developing countries and their groupings, including G77 and China, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), and regional South institutions on major development issues.
Job profile and achievements:
- Setting up the Media and Communications Unit of the South Centre: designing the media, external communications, online and multilingual (English, French and Spanish) outreach strategy.
- Initiating and editing 34 issues of the fortnightly flagship publication: South Bulletin: Reflections and Foresights with subscriber base of over 11,000 and carrying a regular editorial columns by the Executive Director of the South Centre.
- Launching the new and multilingual South Centre Web 2.0 website, South Centre e-Learning Course with UNITAR, South Centre/Elgar Publications Series, South Centre/ Fahamu Publications Series, South Centre/IPS Column Service, South Centre Blog, South Centre DigitalTV, South FACE event reporting service, and the South Centre e-Updates.
- Partnering with media and wire services resulting in over 150 media citations of South Centre in 20 months in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German and Spanish in newspapers, radio, and TV (BBC-UK, Al Jazeera).
- Creating and developing relationship with the core constituency of South Centre’s products and services: Foreign Missions of developing countries to the UN in Geneva, New York and Brussels, Ministry of Finance, Trade and Foreign Affairs, Parliamentary Committees, Media, G77, G24, NAM and other South intergovernmental bodies.
- Providing substantive support to trade, intellectual property, climate change and global governance programmes, harmonising of policy messages, fund-raising, writing papers and delivering presentations.
- Representing South Centre and organising side events in major UN and multilateral events: United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP-14 (1-12 December 2008, Poznan), Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development to Review the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus (29 November- 2 December 2008, Doha), 3rd High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (2-4 September 2008, Accra), The Twelfth Ministerial Conference of UNCTAD (20-25 April 2008, Accra), and United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP-13 (3-14 December 2007, Bali).
- Initiatives:
- Creating the Intellectual Network of the South (http://www.INSouth.org): a network of over 80 eminent South intellectuals and over 400 emerging intellectuals on range of issues. The network brings together over 250 intergovernmental organisations and policy thinktanks from the South.
- Initiating regular meetings of the South Intellectual Platform under chairmanship of President Benjamin W. Mkapa (President of Tanzania, 1995-2005) to brainstorm on policy responses from the South on global issues. Five meetings were organised bringing together heads of UN and International Organisations, former members of the South Commission, and Ambassadors of developing countries Missions to the UN.
- Migrating the entire South Centre IT and email system to CITRIX resulting in savings of USD 30,000/year.
December 2006 – January 2007
Chief Moderator and Instructor, UNDP Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States, Bratislava.
UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS (RBEC) serves 29 countries in Central and Eastern Europe.
Job profile and achievements:
- Initiating and moderating the UNDP global discussion forum: “A stronger E-Governance means better and more doable MDGs Agenda?”
- Instructor, e-Governance Community of Practice Meeting – a joint UNDP Europe & CIS and UNDP Asia-Pacific Initiative in Tallinn, Estonia.
March 2006 – November 2006
Special Advisor to the Executive Director, South Centre, Geneva.
South Centre, an intergovernmental agency, assists in developing points of view of the South on major policy issues, and in generating ideas and action-oriented proposals for consideration by the collectivity of South governments
Job profile and achievements:
- Launching the South Intellectual Platform and organizing the inaugural workshop: “New Challenges for the South: Opportunities and Risks (Re-visiting the South Commission’s Report 15 Years Later)”
- Drafting the South Intellectual Platform synthesis report and piloting the initial set of activities, including Friends of the South Centre Network, ‘Speak Out’ Media Database, and the South Centre Academic Network.
- Undertaking research work on new forms of south-south Cooperation and global index to measure and rank cooperation between countries.
- Conceptualising innovative fundraising approaches to support the core activities of the Centre.
May 2004 – March 2006
Knowledge Management Specialist, South-South Portal for Information, Knowledge and Empowerment (SPIKE), Geneva
SPIKE intends to serve as an electronic point of convergence for the South and South-related issues. It furthers the South Centre, an intergovernmental agency, mandate of promoting South-South cooperation.
Job profile and achievements:
- Identify sector-wide information needs of the South policymakers and negotiators and the existing sources of information.
- Designing information products and services to be delivered via SPIKE for use by Missions of developing countries to the UN in Geneva and New York, and developing countries delegations participating in multilateral negotiations within and outside of the UN.
- Conceiving the SPIKE portal, content management system, interactive features, and information flow architecture.
April 2003 – December 2004
Manager, global public goods Network (gpgNet), Office of Development Studies, UNDP, New York / Geneva
gpgNet serves researchers, policymakers, and civil society as a platform for information exchange and discussion, on issues concerning the theory, policy design and practice of providing global public goods.
Job profile and achievements:
- Created the global policy network– gpgNet.net, to bridge research and policy on global public goods
- Integrated the activities of gpgNet with negotiation on trade, finance, biodiversity, water, health and MDGs at the regional and global level.
- Set up focus-groups ahead of key events, including the World Water Conference, Fifth WTO Ministerial Meeting, World Park Congress and World Summit on Information Society (WSIS).
- Managed and moderated periodic electronic discussion forums of over 600 participants and assistance in preparing reflection papers: on Open Access to Scholarly Publications: A model for enhanced Knowledge Management?, Basel II Accord: international financial stability, Evolution of Global Reports and Policy Challenges, Achieving MDGs: a global public goods perspective, Multilateral trade regime seen through a global public goods lens; Agriculture Research and Development: consequences of shifting balance from public to private; and Public and Private Dimensions of the Global Water Challenge.
July 2001 – March 2003
Policy Analyst, Office of Development Studies (ODS), UNDP, New York.
ODS is the policy think-tank within the UNDP. It collaborates with development policy think tanks and experts around the world to foster joint research and knowledge exchange.
Job profile and achievements:
- Provided research and editorial support for the UNDP publication- Providing Global Public Goods: Managing Globalization, Oxford University Press, January 2003.
- Undertook research on adequacy of public goods provision and their financing – peace and conflicts, biodiversity conservation, and corruption-free governance.
- Conducted research on global telecommunications network, the Internet and knowledge management as global public goods and, issues of access and costs of underprovision.
- Carried out policy-oriented research on international cooperation and global governance issues with respect to achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
- Conceived the global public goods Network (gpgNet.net) to link together researchers, policymakers and practitioners to move research results into policy debates and practice.
- Managed the project: “Bridging Research and Policymaking” in collaboration with Global Development Network (GDN), World Bank. A survey of 48 senior government officials in 32 countries was undertaken to understand the policymaking process.
January 1999 – September 2000
Program Officer, Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP), Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.
SDNP was implemented by the Government of India, with support from UNDP, World Bank, and IDRC-Canada to catalyze sustainable development through establishment of national knowledge networks.
Job profile and achievements:
- Set up India’s first knowledge network on “Environment and Sustainable Development”. The network has over 25 nodes on different subject areas and provides access to databases, government policies, and referral service on environment and development.
- Monitored debates and negotiations on biodiversity, forestry, climate change, and clean technologies and prepared policy packs for use by ministers and other government officials.
- Liaisoned with government officials on environment and development issues and created avenues for participation of NGOs in select advisory committee and “right to information” meetings.
- Selection and building information management and networking skills of 15 nodal organizations.
- Provided consultations to government and funding agencies on how to make governmental information available electronically to citizens, especially in rural and thinly populated areas.
- Initiatives: Promoting NetAid launch concert and Online Volunteering for UNV in India.
February 1998 – January 1999
Policy Analyst, Policy and Advocacy Unit, ActionAid, India.
ActionAid is an international development organisation with headquarters in UK and works in the area of food security, natural resources management, health and education in over 50 countries.
Job profile and achievements:
- Authored technical papers on agricultural policy, food security and biotechnology.
- Authored a comprehensive base paper on “Draft Model Indian Agricultural Policy” for discussion at state-level workshops on public investment in agriculture and food security.
- Designed training modules and imparted training to partner NGOs on policy-advocacy.
- Member of ActionAid’s International Food Rights Campaign for promoting food security.
- Participated in campaigning and initiating public dialogues on agriculture and WTO reforms.
- Initiative: Provided editorial support to the flagship magazine “Exchanges” of ActionAid.
April 1996 – February 1998
Programme Organizer (Monitoring, Special Initiatives and Drinking Water), Aga Khan Rural Support Program India. (AKRSP), India.
AKRSP, an international NGO, works on natural resources management in Asia and Africa.
Job profile and achievements:
- Undertook monitoring of soil and water resources, forestry, agriculture, biomass energy, and watershed development programmes of AKRSP in over 250 villages.
- Managed a team of over 35 development professionals and participated in their half-yearly performance evaluation exercises.
- Implemented the drinking water and sanitation programmes in 30 salinity-affected villages.
- Designed the significant change monitoring & evaluation frameworks for the EU funded project on community management of natural resources, and wrote periodic reports for the donors.
- Conducted participatory rural appraisals (PRA), impact assessment and baseline monitoring
- Authored evaluation reports on gender and soil-water conservation programmes.
- Voluntary Initiatives: Initiated the children development programme and farm-based programmes for tribal communities of African descent.
- Won the best spearhead team award.
Vikas Nath 